New Rock Album: The Verve, *Forth* (2008)...Aside from familiarity with the ubiquitous and wonderful Verve tune "Bittersweet Symphony," I had not known this band before recently...their body of work includes three great albums from the 1990s and this new one just released...a complex, moody, deep rock band, one to get to know over a long time...their new album brings them back with mucho gusto...they shake off the rust like there never was any...here's hoping their second life lasts years and years...

Classic Rock Album: Deep Purple, *Deep Purple* (1969)...an early release from this long-lived UK band, it catches them at a moment when they were working the border between progressive and heavy metal musics...at times lushly orchestrated, and at other times rocking fierce, this album harks back to a period in the late '60s when genres had first broken down and whatever worked, whatever sounded exciting and moving, was what the good and great bands would go for...a real treat and discovery for those who don't already know this album....

Storybook Time: Continuing Chapter Twenty-five of *Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism* by Daniel Pinchbeck...

Readings from *Labyrinthine* fixtion & *Many Musics* poems...& this week's featured artist is Steppenwolf, a band known back in the '60s for its major hits "Born to Be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride" but with a lot more variety and depth to offer than just these two great songs...Election Day in the US is next Tuesday and, like back in 1968, the whole world is watching...message to the world: there are millions of us here who are determined to get OBAMA elected and this country and the world onto a better path than in years...we're doing it!!

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New Rock Album: Snow Patrol, *A Hundred Million Suns* (2008)...there is a pantheon of current UK rock bands among which Snow Patrol resides (with Radiohead, Coldplay, Oasis, The Verve, Travis, Elbow, the Doves, among others)...their new album continues their breach into deep sugar veins of music...exciting, memorable for those who chance a listen...

Classic Rock Album: Steely Dan, *Aja* (1977)...this is the Dan's cool jazz-rock masterpiece, a long, smooth, clean-smoking doobie of an album...the cut "Deacon Blues" is on my list of top rock songs of all time...I remember some gone year ago riding the highway with some lost friend, blasting it on the stereo, its long-blowing freedom...

Storybook Time: Chapter Twenty-six of *Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism* by Daniel Pinchbeck...

Readings from *Labyrinthine* fixtion & *Many Musics* poems...& this week's featured artist is Kaleidoscope, a (mostly) late-60s folk-psychedelic band from Los Angeles, cuts from their debut album, 1967's shambling freak-fest *Side Trips*...what a difference a week makes...the world greets Barack Obama as he celebrates with all his landslide victory for US president...and, on a personal note, I was laid off from my job the morning after Election Day, one I'd had only about six weeks....before Bush's nightmare years, I'd never been laid off from a job...in the past 8 years, it's been half a dozen times...I was thinking that Obama's path to his current victory was marked by many setbacks, yet he kept his cool and kept his faith, and here he is...a lesson in this...if I am brave enough to heed...

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New Rock Album: The Pretenders, *Break Up the Concrete* (2008)...when the 4/7/07 broadcast of this program featured The Pretenders' 1983 masterpiece, *Learning to Crawl*, I did not suspect that a new Pretenders album as good as this new release was due any time soon...happy surprise, this new album is full of the kind of muscular rock songs and cool plaintive ballads that made Ohio native Chrissie Hynde and crew a great rock group in the first place...happy return to form...

Classic Rock Album: Rush, *Roll the Bones* (1991)...one of the Canadian power trio's undisputably great albums...this album catches them at a moment when they are most deeply infusing their hard rock with raw existential lyrics...drummer Neil Peart said of this music's philosophy: "But the bottom line...is to take the chance, roll the bones, if it's a random universe and that's terrifying and it makes you neurotic and everything, never mind. you really have to take the chance or else nothing's going to happen."...

Storybook Time: Chapter Twenty-six of *Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism* by Daniel Pinchbeck...

Readings from *Labyrinthine* fixtion & *Many Musics* poems...& this week's featured artist is Elton John, a selection of his early songs, no doubt prelude to more of his work being featured on this show in the future...I've been a week hitting the bricks for work and it's been tough...it's still Bush's America for a little while longer, which means everyone has to hang on for that while...so much unnecessary trouble and suffering caused by one world-class buffoon...that said, the autumn in the Pacific Northwest is breathlessly sweet...nature's compensation for men's follies...

Webcasting to the globe & beyond from the People's Republic of Portland, Oregon!

New Rock Album: Springhouse, *From Now to OK* (2008)...this New York band released two albums in the early 1990s, well-received but few sales...broke up for a few years...reunited about ten years ago and have been working on this new album since...much of their music is acoustic though they can go electric at times, and let out with orchestral flourishes too...dreamy, trippy, warm, sweet music...

Classic Rock Album: Fleetwood Mac, *Fleetwood Mac* (1975)...the Mac became another band when mad genius Lindsey Buckinghand and blonde enchantress Stevie Nicks joined up...their music blossomed and their lyrical power blew up...this album marks their rise to superstar band, something each of their members earned, and suffered for in the years to come...

Storybook Time: Continuing Chapter Twenty-six of *Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism* by Daniel Pinchbeck...

Readings from *Labyrinthine* fixtion & *Many Musics* poems...& this week's featured artist is The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a tribute to their recently passed drummer Mitch Mitchell...anyway, this week I job-hunted, a draining, depressing effort when the news is all about more lay-offs, and I also readied SpiritPlants Radio for its 5th anniversary and re-launch weekend...strange the two efforts in tandem...both necessary, and strangely supporting each other...no job yet, but the radio website looks wonderful!

Webcasting to the globe & beyond from the People's Republic of Portland, Oregon!